Dickson's Farmstand Meats, in Chelsea Market has a wide variety of locally-sourced meats. For Christmas, my parents got me two "Whole Beast" gift cards, one for beef and one for pork, which entitle me to a TON of FREE MEAT. Woohoo! See the results, after the jump...

The first time I used the beef card, I walked into the store, showed them my card, and 1 minute later, was waltzing out with 4lbs of short ribs. The second trip was for a pork shoulder - the card entitled me to 3lbs, but the shoulder they had came up a bit short -- to make up the difference they threw in some slab bacon. I felt like a meat celebrity. It was awesome. You know what else was awesome? The meals I made with this bounty of meat.

Below are the results of each card's first punch.

Red-Wine Braised Short Ribs with Wilted Spinach and Cauliflower Puree

Recipes adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Since there was so much of this leftover, on the second night I made some into a ragu, served over farfalle, and third night I made the last remnants into chili (which we noshed on at cookbook club).